


Wolves

by retroelectric



Category: Borderlands
Genre: Age Difference, As in 24 year age difference, Attempted Sexual Assault, Consensual Non-Consent, Dubious Consent, Eventual Smut, Jack never worked at Hyperion, M/M, Rhys and Jack are both vault hunters, Rhys is a spoilt brat, Rough Sex, Unresolved Sexual Tension, vault hunter au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-03
Updated: 2016-05-09
Packaged: 2018-06-06 03:51:38
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 19,838
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6737056
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/retroelectric/pseuds/retroelectric
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>'If neither Jack nor Rhys chose Hyperion' AU where both Rhys and Jack were seduced by glorified vault hunter propaganda. Imagine the posters: 'Riches, power and guns galore!' then at the bottom hastily scribbled almost as an afterthought, 'AND WOMEN'</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Basically a young boy Rhys growing up watching glorified vault hunter propaganda with Handsome Jack looking cool as hell (he never became CEO of Hyperion in this one, so he didn’t get his vault hunter scar. He lost Angel and his wife due to other reasons i.e. his vault hunterliness) and so Rhys decides to try his best to be a badass and emulate Jack… because he’s adept at making the best decisions in his life. Obviously. This is just something written in a lighthearted tone because I'm in love with the vault hunter AU, so enjoy!
> 
> Title is from this very Borderlandsy song: [Rag n' Bone Man - Wolves](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nM35X5hdzEs)
> 
> Hit me up on tumblr: [here!](http://creamyrhys.tumblr.com)

“So where did you get your arm and ECHOeye done, huh?”

Rhys took a swig of his orange juice, trying to act like a real man while the burly bandit man with a distinct sour stink to him took to questioning him about his tech.

“Well, I got it done back on Eden-5 on my 17th birthday,” Rhys exclaims proudly, showing off his cybernetic arm, that’s in the distinct grey gunmetal of Hyperion but with a neon blue detail, from a custom job that made it look shiny and exclusive. “My mom gifted it to me ‘coz I did well in school. It’s Hyperion made.”

“Oh yeah. It looks great.” The man took a swig, sizing the kid up and down. The kid was loaded, being from where he was, how he was dressed. It was easy to know, “You’ve got a real fancy eye and port too, huh? How old are you?”

“Eighteen,” Rhys grins, not at all drunk because he’s drinking goddamn _orange juice_ , but certainly not careful enough for him to notice the man had slipped his hand in his back pocket and stole his money.

“And you’re alone here in Sanctuary?” the man smoothly tries to ask, eyes darting to the doors, looking to make a quick exit after this.

“—Yeah! It’s my first time here. I’m looking to-” Rhys was cut off, when in a split second, the bandit was pushed to the ground in a flurry of action and got his face beat with big burly fists. Rhys was startled, standing up and pressing himself up against the bar, trying to inch away from the commotion, shocked.

Wow, was he in some kind of a real life action movie or what? He wondered.

“How many times do I have to tell you, _Luis_ ,” Salvador barks, “Don’t steal from kids? Huh? Puta madre!”

“OW! _Owowowow_ —okay! I won’t do it again –AGH!” Rhys could hear the dramatic pop sound of something dislocating.

“Return that back to him!”

The bandit whimpers as he offers the money back to Rhys in between crooked, obviously broken fingers…

Rhys blinked at him and then at Salvador—the stout, heavily built man, then took the money back, squeaking out a, “Thank you?!” to Salvador, who gives the man another rough kick on his ass before the man scurries away, stumbling with pain.

“Ay, no problem, chico. How about you buy me a drink, huh?” Salvador winks, then barks his order at the barkeep who looks so damn used to the vault hunter’s antics from how he’s rolling his eyes. Salvador’s sitting beside Rhys who looks a little bit awkward and thrilled.

So _thrilled,_ that he’s practically wriggling with excitement.

“My name’s Salvador, what’s yours?”

“It’s Rhys. Oh, I know who you are,” he says quickly, sounding dreamy and excited. “You’re. Um—your poster’s all over Pandora… you’re the gunzerker! Ugh, you’re so cool!”

The man scratched his nose and then grins wide, giving Rhys a finger pistol flick. Rhys giggles.

“Could you autograph something of mine?” Reaching into his pack to pull out a notebook and a pen.

Salvador laughs, patting the kid on his back. “Naw, that’s embarrassing,” but he’s still relenting and scrawling something as Rhys looks on wide eyed and adoring.

“Word of advice, Rhys, don’t keep money in your back pocket.” He suggests, downing his hard alcohol before gesturing for another. “You could keep it somewhere else. Ya know, like-” he gestures to his crotch. “Thaaaat could be a safer place.”

The swinging door of the bar slammed open and Axton and the rest walk in, and Rhys watches boggle eyed at the array of vault hunters coming in, all of whom he’d heard of in advertisements on television, wanted posters, all over Pandora…

Rhys was going to die of a brain aneurysm or something, so overwhelmed.

All these cool people. _In one place_. Rhys had stumbled in on Sanctuary on a super good day!

“Sal, what the hell do you think you’re doing, propositioning sex to a kid!”

“I’m not, _c _abrón__!”

“You were pointing at your crotch like a gross douchebag-” Axton makes a rude gesture.

“Was telling the kid over here where to keep his money somewhere safe!”

“Keep telling yourself that! Where are your morals, huh?” Much to his friend’s macho indignance.

Axton leans into Rhys’ space, peering over the kid’s smooth pampered face and pretty looks. Rhys has to hold himself back a little from blushing too hard, because up close?—the commando was every bit as handsome, chiselled and tanned as he did in the advertisements he did for the male body wash that rhymed with _Sex_ , “Hey, kid! Oooh, wow, don’t you look expensive…”

Axton checks out Rhys’ cybernetic arm, completely impressed. “Hyperion, huh?”

“Y-Yeah!” Rhys squeaks.

“What’s your name?” Then pauses for added effect, “I assume I need no introduction,” he says cockily, holding a hand out to Rhys, the boy shaking it vigorously.

“I’m Rhys… I’m from Eden-5." and a little pause, "I came here because I wanna be a vault hunter, just like you!”

Axton gives him a double take.

Salvador looks at Rhys like he sprouted two heads, confused.

First of all, the kid looks like he’d burn in the sun instead of tanning. His hair’s still relatively clean for being on Pandora, his face looks baby soft and blemish-free and he looks so delicate and so young. His human arm was skinny with no muscles on him, in fact—his whole body was slender, and despite his height he doesn’t seem intimidating at all. He looks as innocent and adorable as a honey bee... He didn’t even look like he could _lift_.

“Uhhh… good luck!” Axton decides to say, doesn’t want to break the kid’s heart on his obviously first day in Sanctuary.

“Thanks!” Rhys beams, and he looks proud of himself, before he asks, all straightforward, “So… do you know where I could start? Any... uh, vacancies somewhere?”

Axton and Salvador looked at each other.

 

* * *

 

“Drop 20!” Maya scolds him, and Rhys groaned, dropping to the ground and his skinny arms were trembling when he’s made to do 20 push ups, again. He did ask for this! He asked to be drilled physically and mentally to become a fully-fledged vault hunter…But it still didn’t detract from how tough this training was!

Axton told him he didn’t seem ready enough to pop his vault hunting cherry with any paid missions at all, so he delegated training duties to Maya first.

Being a fledgling vault hunter trained by the cool people around him was great though. Even if his job was to run errands around town, sometimes venture out to the neighbouring towns hitching rides with the other vault hunters for supplies and delivery jobs. He earned very little—next to nothing from these jobs, but at least it’s some money he could live off… not that he was ever short of it, anyway. Honestly. He’s just happy to be somewhere completely different from Eden-5, living his dream, hanging out with the cool vault hunters...

Rhys was practically laying on the ground on his stomach after doing his final push up having collapsed, and his arms felt like jelly when Maya nudges him with her foot.

“ _Nyeh._ ”

“Rhys! Stop kissing the ground and get up! Give me two laps around the block!”

“Nnngh— _Maya_!” he whines.

“If you’ve got enough energy to complain, I’m not drilling you hard enough. Huh? You think it’s easy to be a vault hunter? Just fly in your goddamn rocket ship from your planet and think you'll just make it big here, huh?! Make that five laps!”

Rhys makes a sobby cry as he whines and then breaks out into a tired run around the block, just as Maya told him to, knowing he’s going to suffer for at least a few days from sore muscles. But the payoff was going to be great, right? They would take him more seriously! He did ask for more experience, after all!

Maya barks out, “I’m timing you!” after Rhys finishes his first lap, eyeing the kid up and down and snorting at how ridiculous he looks. He’s wearing expensive Eden-brand gear—a skinny fit workout tee, and small well-fitted pair of running shorts and expensive looking sports shoes. Yeah, sure---to each his own, but Maya found the kid utterly ridiculous. Like he’s honestly either totally naïve about what being a vault hunter entails, or how Pandora works. The fact that he'd been almost robbed the first night in Sanctuary, or the fact that he kept wearing ridiculous expensive clothing where bandits don't feel bad for robbing you.

Axton had choked on his beer when he first saw Rhys doing his pre-workout stretching and warm up wearing such indecent, tight fitting clothing. But no one had said anything, so Rhys hadn’t noticed. The kid was way too innocent or… something.

Now the sun’s beating down on his very delicate skin, sweat rolling down his face and ruining his perfectly coiffed hair, soaking his clothing with sweat that clung to his body.

On his third exhausting lap, he sees _him_.

_Handsome Jack._

The great, legendary vault hunter rolled into town in a bandit technical, dressed handsomely with a cowboy hat on his head, in a poncho that covers his broad, muscled upper torso. He has a bandanna on that covers half of his face, but then he takes it away, and Rhys' breath is pretty much taken away (sure, from running too, but more so from the man’s rugged handsomeness) from how good looking the man was. He just looked so cool with guns strapped onto him with his thigh holsters and his cowboy boots…

The world feels like it’s slowing down as _Handsome goddamn Jack_ took off his hat, and smoothed out his already perfect hair.

Rhys was just staring at the man as he coolly descended from his vehicle, unaware he’d stopped mid-workout to ogle. Jack looked like such a wet dream of an action movie star in his prime, good-looking and perfect in every way. He watches Jack grab his things and slung them over his shoulder, a cigar in between his lips as he lit it dexterously with a zippo lighter.

_Wow…_

Rhys is totally intimidated as he looks at him.

The man seemed to have noticed him ogling, as he glances his way with an icy gaze and Rhys feels his judgemental stare and frown, eyeing the kid’s snazzy Hyperion arm, then scoffs, looking away like Rhys was _nothing_ , striding somewhere with such an absolute presence.

Rhys blushes, baulking at how he thinks he must look to Jack for the first time he’s seen him!--unkempt, sweaty and totally unglamorous. He quickly jolts back and resuming his lap, his heart rabbiting in his chest from just how starstruck he felt.

He looks behind him, hoping to catch another glimpse of the absolutely cool vault hunter, only to ram straight into a huge Crimson Raider guy.

“Oof!”

He falls straight on his buttocks onto the dusty ground.

 

* * *

 

Rhys was all washed and clean as he changed back into his regular clothes, heading to the bar for drinks and food before he could go to bed to rest his poor, hurt feet and put lotion on them.

But even before he stepped in, he heard the loud commotion from outside.

He walked in and was totally awestruck when he sees Jack again, surrounded by all of his friends, and he’s animatedly recounting the story of how he killed Terramorphus the Invincible, all solo…

“I mean, you’ve got to be quick on your feet. This thresher’s no ordinary creature, you know? It’s an _abomination_. Thing's ugly as a skag's ass, ya know? You’ve got to be alert. The tentacles could sprout anywhere, without you noticing, yeah? You need to keep your eyes open, how the ground feels under ya…” he goes on.

“How do we know you’re not takin’ the piss on us, huh?!” someone sniggers, and Jack, being Jack, totally plonks a bag of something and reveals a _huge_ , extremely heavy, slightly rotting stinky eye.

“I ain’t taking the piss,” the man says smugly. “it’s the real deal.”

“HOLY SHIT!” Followed by, “Damn! Wicked!” and “How much did you get paid for that, huh?!”

“50 grand. But of course!” Jack relates smugly.

Rhys gapes at the gross looking eye that’s still moving and swivelling around, looking at its surroundings.

“That’s so AWESOME!”

Rhys rushes forward, eagerly stepping between the small crowd and into Jack’s space to get a look at the thresher’s eye like an excited little kid.

“Oh my god, it’s still moving and all, that’s disgusting, and it _smells_ , but it’s so cool!”

He totally uses his ECHOeye to take a picture of it, his eye lighting up with the fancy blue colour.

Jack frowns, gestures at Rhys and asks Axton, “Who’s this wet-nosed kid?”

“Oh, that’s Rhys. He’s new.”

“Pffft. Obviously.” Jack drawls, “You forgot or somethin'? We don’t accept strays here.”

He’s talking as if Rhys is not there. Rhys opens his mouth, about to say something.

“He wants to be a vault hunter,” Axton elaborates good-naturedly, “Still a trainee. Maya’s trainee.”

“Don’t care. Kid--shoo!”

Rhys looks sad like a kicked puppy at the man’s dismissal, his expression changing to total dejectedness, walking away from the table. Nobody consoles him.

Jack then continues his story, lighting another cigarette, “Anyway, this ugly ass monstrosity was at least 15 storeys high. Shook the ground like an earthquake when it collapsed and I could cut out it’s stupid freakin’ eye!”

Rhys doesn’t feel hungry anymore. A lump grows in the back of his throat, and he just wants to _cry._

 

* * *

 

Rhys tried his best not to let it Jack’s behaviour go to his head, but he’s still hard up about it. Why was he so mean and so rude? Everyone else liked him, they liked his enthusiasm and willingness to learn…

He worked hard for his own keep! Sure, he wasn’t a good shot yet, but no one had the time to genuinely teach him how to shoot properly! He tried the firing range practice in Marcus’ ammunition shop, but no matter how many times he tried shooting, he couldn’t get past the recoil even while using his own cybernetic arm—which was very awkward to handle, because he was left handed.

It was busy season for heavy missions and whatnot for the more experienced vault hunters, so Rhys was mostly left alone to handle himself that he even tried bartending even with the relatively low wage he got for it. He did his best to work out, to practice shooting—but he wasn’t improving and he was getting frustrated.

He certainly didn’t come to Pandora to be an errand boy, a bartender, or anything lesser than a vault hunter.

He can’t go home now, not when he was pretty much convinced that he could be successful at this. He needed to keep his word to himself and be good at something! He didn’t need a college degree or to work in a big conglomerate to be happy with himself.

He knew what would be good though… Rhys wanted to be trained by the best. But even Maya was just too busy with her own missions to pay mind to him.

He fantasises being trained by Handsome Jack.

The man wouldn’t give him the time of the day, for the next few months, and he didn’t even look at Rhys—or when he did he looked at the kid like he was dirt. It hurt that Jack would be so friendly with the other vault hunters, but when Rhys just so happened to walk in to the same room, Jack’s mood seemed to change and he asks annoying, mean questions like, “When is this stupid kid going to just give up and go home?”, “Kid, I’ve got a tip for you. Give up! Go home. You’re worthless!” Then to downright ignoring Rhys’ presence which made him feel like a friggin’ fly in the room nobody wanted around, just because Jack was mean and horrible to him.

 

* * *

 

That one time Jack called Rhys to him, it was the eve of New Year’s celebration when everyone was home and cosily preparing for celebrations. The other vault hunters were within their own circles doing their own things, and Rhys was seated alone reading a book when he heard Jack’s voice call him.

The boy was wary but eagerly going up to him when the man tells him gruffly, “Boy, I’ve got something for you,” Then hands the kid a box.

“What’s this?” Rhys asks.

“Just open it up.”

Rhys opens the box… only to see a crumpled flyer to a drag show with a slinky sparkly dress and he looks at the ‘present’ confusedly.

“Get it?! You should join that drag queen thingamajig instead, kiddo! That’ll suit you better, with all your fruity behaviour, friggin kid. Make a whole new year’s resolution that'll make you happy, yeah? Just give up trying to be a vault hunter already, and earn real money being a pretty drag queen and suck some dick. You’re just embarrassing to yourself and _your mother_! If only she could see you now, huh?!” Jack crows, laughing meanly at the boy’s wobbly expression.

Rhys’ eyes start to water. Jack had gone too far. All he could do was look at Jack disbelieving, sad and he started to cry, covering his face when he’s sobbing and stumbling over the end of the carpet on the floor before he runs upstairs to his bunk bedroom to cry.

How _could_ he say that?

Rhys sobs heavily, deep wrenching sobs when he heard Axton’s familiar voice in the doorway. “Rhys?”

“Leave me alone!” he muffles.

Then he feels Axton get in behind him and pull him onto his lap to hug him tight. “Aw, Rhys… I’m sorry. I’m sure Jack doesn’t mean to say that…”

“H-How could he not mean to say that?” Rhys sniffles, crying hard into the man’s shoulder, “He’s been mean to me the whole time… I haven’t done anything wrong, have I?”

“Of course not… I told him off, babe. He went too far to tease you this time.” Axton rubs soothing circles over the boy’s slim back, “He’s too old to change his ways, though. He's not gonna repent! You know what I mean?”

Rhys just keeps crying his feelings out, showing just how much he’s kept pent up inside him. “Everyone j-just seems to like me… but he hates me! H-He acts as if I did something bad to him… I just…I just wanna be friends with him! He acts like I'm just dirt...”

“It’s not easy to be friends with a guy like that, Rhys,” Axton says, fondly shaking his head, ruffling his hand through Rhys’ tousled hair. How did his hair even get this messy? Axton only grows even more fond of the kid, “Trust me. C’mon, just forget what he did. Wash your pretty lil face up, and we’ll share my bunk together, okay?”

Rhys hiccups before taking a deep breath, then says, “Okay.”

 

* * *

 

A few long months had passed, and Rhys had only marginally gotten better at shooting (he could get critical hits on occasion now…) and the thing that had improved was his general physique. He’d been working out every day, running, carrying the other vault hunter’s heavy packs, all that work made him leaner and develop a higher endurance ad stamina. He’d also been following them on short missions which were easily the highlights of his time spent in Sanctuary… except for this particular time, Handsome Jack was heading this mission.

And that meant being in the general vicinity of the snooty, mean vault hunter whom he used to want some semblance of approval from… but not any more!

While Salvador and Maya were out hunting skag for dinner, Rhys was left with Handsome Jack at their makeshift base camp. Before the man could even notice, Rhys had snuck a distance away, taking the glass bottles he’d found littered around the desert, arranging them on the rocks so he could do some target practice.

Rhys took out his pistol, and looked down the scope, trying his best not to cheat and use his ECHOeye like he always did while he panicked in actual situations.

He tried, and tried again, but he still didn’t know why he couldn’t do it.

After emptying two full clips worth of pistol ammo, he ended up slumping to the ground so frustrated he started crying into his hands. What was he doing wrong?!

“Goddammit, kid, stop crying!”

Jack’s voice calls out from behind, looking down at Rhys, displeased.

“I’m so sick of watching you snivel and act like a dumbass when shit like this is so goddamn easy. What freakin’ planet are you even from, huh? McFruity Fruit planet kingdom or something? Get up! Reload your goddamn weapon,” Jack snarls out, sounding angry.

Rhys snapped to attention and does as the man says, a little bit terrified.

“Position!” Jack looks over Rhys’ stance and kicks his heels open a bit more to get him steadier, his big rough hands manhandling Rhys’ arms and showed him how to hold the weapon for less recoil.

“Aim down your sights and don’t use your goddamn fancy ass eye to guide you!”

Rhys meekly follows, trying not to get his hands to waver so much.

“Now shoot before they friggin’ kill ya! Nothing on Pandora you need to kill doesn’t not move. You don’t get time to think when you’re out there alone looking after your own goddamn back.”

Rhys shoots when he thinks he’s ready, but it hits the neck bottle this time. The top of the bottle shatters.

“Do that again and make sure you get it just how you did it. Use your instincts! Use your brain! What do you got eyes for, huh? Waitin’ for them to gouge it out and make jam outta it?”

Rhys grits his teeth, starting to get impatient and mad at how bossy the man could be, biting out, “I’m _trying_!”

“Well then try harder, you crapstick piece of _nothing_!”

Angered, Rhys shoots, getting the rest of the bottle shattering into pieces.

“Shut up! Don’t call me that!”

“I can call you whatever the hell I want, cupcake!”

Rhys tries again to shoot, but he hesitates.

“You’re so fuckin unsure, you might as well use a goddamn SMG,” Jack growls out.

Jack retrieves his own Maliwan SMG strapped behind him, pushing it hard into Rhys’ arms. He’s then demonstrating how to use it, making sure the boy understands the recoil is lower in an SMG than a high velocity pistol, making him steadier.

Rhys sprays the rest of the bottles with bullets and they shatter with his better aim.

“That’s alright,” Jack says begrudgingly. “You need to equip yourself with an SMG, not a pistol. ‘Coz you can’t aim for nuts.”

Jack looks at Rhys up and down, sneering at the obvious wealth on the kid, “Not like you can’t afford it,” he snorts. “Trade in that useless Hyperion pistol for something your size like this SMG. Or give it to someone who’ll use it better…”

“Fine, I’ll do that!”

Jack rolls his eyes at Rhys' tone and then says, “Go right ahead, kid.”

Rhys wipes away the tear tracks on his face, not expecting the next thing Jack says.

“I would have thought a rich spoilt kid like you would’ve just given up and headed back home, to live comfortably on Eden your whole life, instead of remaining here and choosing this god forsaken life you’re getting into.” Jack says with a growl, sounding menacing, “But you decided to stay, for some reason that flies above my head. So good riddance to that cushy life and easy money you coulda got—but you’re playing in _this_ league now, kid! Nothing is going to change if you don’t learn how to improve.”

“I’m trying!”

“ _'I'm trying_!’” Jack mocks in a high pitched voice, mocking Rhys’ tone. “Kid, until you could do this—” Jack picks up a rock from the ground, flicks it up to the sky and then uses his own Jakob’s revolver to shatter it to pieces with one single shot. “Practice! Nothing comes out of crying like a baby when things don’t go your way, you dumb lil shit.”

Which was Jack speak for— _impress me, or else give up already_. It felt surreal to Rhys, the man who had been rude to him, who’d looked at him like he was dirt underneath his boot was actually _tutoring_ him.

Rhys spends the rest of the day practising, Jack correcting him and drilling him for his minor mistakes in his stance and how he handles his gun until Maya and Salvador returned with their meat for food that night.

He doesn’t catch the look Jack gives Rhys. It’s a minuscule, proud look a father could give, but nobody notices it.

After their meal, they get their sleeping bags laid out, and were to rotate every two hours for someone to keep watch while the rest had some sleep.

It was Rhys’ turn to keep watch. Rhys was tired, and there was only so much he could do to try keep himself awake, napping fitfully in between small instances of peering around to check that nothing was amiss. Of course, Pandora being Pandora, nothing ever goes to plan and Rhys’ fitful nap curled up by the bonfire was interrupted by the sound of a low snarl.

Rhys peeks an eye open, yawning, looking around.

Then he sees red, glowing eyes, and the snarl of teeth and rank breath… he’s staring for a few seconds before he realises—

SKAG PUP!

Rhys jolts and grabs his pistol, aiming the barrel of his gun directly at the head, then blasts through its head with a single shot.

Brains and blood splatter onto him.

The other three woke up in an instant to the noise, and Jack notices Rhys had killed the pup skag. He’s about to congratulate the kid for having some balls when the sound of low snarls gather around them, closing in on them.

That’s when all of them realise… they’re surrounded by a pack.

Whoops.

“Rhys! Grab the vehicle!” Salvador orders, no time at all to waste.

The boy leaps to his feet, surrounded by the sound of snarls and teeth gnashing and gunshots and he runs for the bandit technical… when he trips over a pup skag who then begins to chew on his leg like a goddamn chew toy.

Fuck, that hurt!

“AHHHHHHHHH!”

Rhys grabs his gun and shoots at the pup, narrowly missing his own leg then yells his way to the vehicle, stepping on it so the rest could hop on the vehicle and they can get the hell out of there.

They get on the vehicle before the alpha skags rear their head, and all of them breathe a collective sigh of relief as they begin their advanced travel back to Sanctuary.

Halfway through, Rhys starts feeling faint…

He passes out to the sound of a worried tone of voice.

“Rhys!”

 

* * *

 

Rhys wakes up in one of the bunk beds in the Crimson Raiders HQ, watching groggily as Jack was smoking a cigarette and reading a newspaper while sitting on a chair nearby.

“Jack?”

“Oh, hey look. The baby’s awake with his first battle scar.” All in all that sounded like a pretty cheerful statement, coming from the man.

“Um, thanks?”

“Kid, I understand you’re growing out the first hairs on your balls or something, but please understand that a pup skag doesn’t wander anywhere alone. You could have just quietly woken any of us up, and avoided you getting bitten and infected by a disgusting skag’s bite. Be glad you didn't catch nothin'.” Jack snorts.

“Oh…”

“You got anything to say for yourself, huh sonny?”

“I’m sorry? I guess?”

“Is that a goddamn question to a question, you salty walnut?”

“I-I’m sorry.” Rhys sits up, wincing as he shifts his hurt leg. “I didn’t know what I was thinking.”

“Well now you know not to attack one small animal because there’s bound to be more nearby, idiot! Which planet did you live on again?”

“Eden-5…”

“Oh yeah, no wonder. A real fruity city boy, wanting to become a vault hunter. How old are you again? Like fourteen?”

“I’m nineteen!” Rhys counters indignantly.

“Nineteen? Really?” Jack’s got a faint faraway look in his eyes, like he’s thinking about something else, before he focuses his sight back on Rhys. “Hm. Who’s been training you so far?”

“Maya. But that’s only for the physical aspect of training like cardio and strength. No one’s been teaching me how to use a gun, until you did.”

“Yeah, yeah. They have more time than I do, and they can’t teach a little kid how to use a gun for basic survival? I know all about Eden-5’s strict gun control and shit like that. Come to think of it, I don’t half blame ya for wanting to get out of there… Pft, sounds like a shithole if you ask me.”

“It wasn’t that bad!”

“I heard Eden-5’s got a gun ban, huh? Must be a miserable fuckin place to live in.”

“It’s not like our lives revolve around bans and fines and whatnot...”

“Spoken like a true Eden loser freak.” Jack takes a long drag of his cigarette, “Gotta be some reason why you decided to abandon whatever life you got back home for this hot mess.”

“I just didn’t want to be bored with my own life, working every day of my life stuck behind a desk, trying to earn big corporate bucks. I was just inspired by …your advertisements and your—um, your movies, were on the ECHOnet and you really inspired me to be a vault hunter, so I thought I’d try my hand at this.” Rhys says, then snarks, “But I didn’t expect you to be a _complete ass_.”

“Baby boy, you don’t even know the half of it,” he snorts. “That was me being _nice_. Seriously, no one was telling you how to do your training better, or to just stop acting like such a sissy boy for one second! Any girl coulda topped you and your work. No one on Pandora’s a freakin sissy, kid. You need to be smarter and stronger, dumbass.”

“I know! I know all of that already! Stop nagging me, you’re not my father!”

“I would have whooped your ass if you were my kid, kitten.”

Rhys made an indignant noise, sitting up and then wincing himself.

“But you’d gotten all of those knick-knacks installed,” Jack refers to his arm and his eye and port. “What are they useful for on Pandora, huh? I don’t see many people using dataports unless it’s for some espionage shit, some super spy bullshit or unless they’re looking to work in some big corporation and get a leg up… unless! You got weapons hidden in there, kiddo?”

“It was experimental Hyperion tech, yeah. But no, I don’t have weapons in my arm. My mom wouldn’t hear any of it.”

“Pffft, that’s useful,” Jack snarks. “Have a computer installed in you, but you’ve got no internal weapons to boast of. No super strength? Nothing?” Jack flicks his finger against the cool metal with a thunk.

“I’ll work to get the upgrades, okay? Ugh. I just don't have the funds right now...”

“Well what can you do with it now in its basic form?” Jack asks, sounding like he’s genuinely curious about it.

Rhys then takes the time to explain to Jack what his ECHO eye does, what his port can do, what its compatible with, the operating system behind the cybernetics, what he could access and hack and all the other functions he showed off to the man, who seemed pretty damn interested in it all.

Though after he finds out all he wants to know, Jack pretends to yawn and say, “So you’re basically just a human supercomputer. With no weapons. Boooring,” but then there’s a twinkle in the man’s eye, that’s just basically saying otherwise.

Jack pulls out his own surveyor bot, and Rhys gasps, seeing the cool tech in the flesh for the first time. His interest is definitely piqued, and he and Jack began talking heatedly about tech work until they seemed to forget the time and place they’re in, as well as their initial distaste for each other.

 


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jack finds his new trainee vault hunter alluring even as a father-son bond starts to develop between them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Smut/warning for some dub con.

Jack had dragged him into the garage because he told Rhys he ‘needed help’, but Rhys suspected that it was more towards making Rhys feel like he’s dumb for not knowing some things, and yep. He’s right. _Again._

“I don’t know how to fix this,” Rhys gestures to the broken down bandit technical in front of them.

 “What do you mean, you don’t know how to fix cars?” Jack snorts, “Isn’t that preschool tier stuff?”

 “Well not everyone needed cars back on Eden-5!” Rhys protests.

“You were chauffeured wherever you went…” Jack assumes, totally on point, offending Rhys.

“ _Yeah,_ but-!"

Jack starts to take off his shirt because he’d started sweating, tossing it onto the ground, showing his toned, gorgeously muscled fit body, and he’s just so broad, hairy and manly looking Rhys balked a little, seeing him this up close.

First and foremost, Rhys was straight as an arrow even with his previous Handsome Jack obsession. Sure, Rhys acted fruity sometimes, and he admired the older man, found him studly in a way that he found he understands why girls and some guys went crazy for him, and admired him in a way that his physique was something enviable for.

His dumb little idolisation was ridiculous back then. Now he knew Jack was secretly a huge dork behind that cool vault hunter exterior, Rhys wasn’t as intimidated anymore, but him _shirtless_? Definitely intimidating. He’s really jealous of the man’s broad and imposing physique.

He snaps out of his distraction when Jack says, “You’re not on any sort of veritable Eden anymore, sweetums, so you’re going to need to learn. Part and parcel of Handsome Jack’s way of teaching.”

Rhys watches the man work. He lifts up the car with a hydraulic jack, loosening the lugs and bolts, loosening the callipers and removing the old rotors. He removes the wheels and gets his hands dirty and grubby, asking Rhys to hand him some tools when he needed them, sounding almost fatherly as he explains patiently to Rhys what he’s doing, when he reinstalls the new parts, and then fixes back the wheels on it.

He then dexterously gets up to check the mechanism that it’s working, pumping the breaks—turning on the ignition and the engine purrs.

“There we go, baby. Check that out!”

“I gotta admit, that was pretty impressive,” Rhys concedes, grinning at Jack brightly.

“Oh? Was it?” Jack’s in a relatively good mood, judging by the way he’s looking at Rhys appreciatively. He eyes the kid with a bit of a mischievous glint to his eye at the boy’s cute toffee-nosed expression.

“C’mere, kid.”

Rhys goes over innocently, not knowing he’s about to be duped when Jack pounces on him and the boy shrieks as he’s pushed to the ground. Jack’s rubbing all his greasy hands all over Rhys’ face and hair and shirt, laughing at the state the kid’s in covering himself like he’s ticklish.

“Nooo! Not my shirt—no no, don’t dirty me, Jack! Jaaaaaack, NO--hahaha!”

“I’ve always wanted to dirty you up, kiddo!” Jack sniggers, smearing more oil and grease on his cheek. “You’re like a pretty princess, you just deserve this, don’t you?!”

Jack grows even more mean and wipes all over Rhys’ chest, dirtying up his collarbones, Rhys getting his hands dirty as he giggles and squeals, grabbing at Jack’s wrist fruitlessly.

“Not my face! AHHH—I’ll get pimples!” he shrieks.

“Get over it, you vain little beauty queen!”

Jack is grinning so wide with amusement his face hurts when he finally stops, and they don’t even realise their position, Jack practically on top of him and Rhys trying to cover his sides as Jack’s big hands hover close to his body.

“No tickling, don’t you dare tickle me-! I can’t take anymore!” Rhys looks so flushed and adorable and happy, it tugs at Jack’s heart strings.

“Aww, sweet pea, I won’t do that to you,” he teases, tugging the boy’s earlobe playfully, watching the kid try to wriggle away from his grasp. He lets him do that but not after offering him a hand to help him stand up.

“You wanna take a shower?”

“Yup!”

Jack just fondly lets Rhys drag him to the communal shower area, remarking, “You’re sure eager to get us both wet and naked, huh?”

“No! JACK!”

 

* * *

 

 

“No! The wire’s supposed to connect with that other wire!”

“Look at you, Mr Smartass who never went to college…”

“You never went to college too!” Rhys says indignantly.

“Yeah, but who built my trusty ol’ surveyor bot and the sweet ol’ invisibility mod, huh?” Jack totally sugarcoats his own ego with his own achievements, “Me. I did. I’m the mastermind here, donut.”

He flicks Rhys’ nose, smug when he hears him squeak.

“I’m just saying I wanted to try! I kinda got this.”

“Ugh, fine. Let me see how you do it your way, then, kiddo.”

Rhys tinkers with the Atlas robot’s wiring here and there, his fingers wiggling dramatically like he’s such a pro at this, then rebooted the whole thing… and surprisingly the fixed wiring of the power core works.

Jack has to say he’s impressed when the repair surveyor bot whirs and flies here and there aimlessly, looking for things to fix around in the garage.

“Attaboy, Rhys!”

Rhys beams the rest of the day at Jack’s positive remark. Hell, _the rest of whole week_.

 

* * *

 

Jack lets Rhys try out using a sniper rifle to shoot down the rakk circling in the distance, teaching him admittedly just like how a father would, and giving out pointers and hints on how to improve his stance and field of vision and everything.

“The most important thing is to be confident you’re going to hit that thing in one shot. You’re not just trailing after it with no aim, you’re tracking down its movements. You’re takin’ advantage of its nature.”

With Jack’s voice close to his ear, Rhys grows in his confidence and he shoots the rakk in one shot.

“OH MY GOD!” Rhys exclaims. “Did I do it? Did I?”

“You did, sugar plum.” Jack announces, “I’m so proud of you, my boy!”

Rhys squeals, then uses the butt of the sniper rifle as some kinda microphone, fake adjusting his non-existent tie and collar, “I’d like to thank the Academy for the continued support to me, Rhys, the greatest rifleman on earth…”

“Ugh. You’re embarrassing, kid.”

“Uhuh. I’m so good at huntin’,” Rhys says proudly.

The boy wriggles and dances about like a buffoon for his achievement, hair swishing here and there that Jack just sighs, rolling his eyes at the kid’s antics and says, “Rhysie. Let’s grab that dead rubbery rakk already before something else takes it away already.”

“We’re eating well tonight because of me, right dad?” He doesn’t notice his own slip-up, but Jack does. It makes him feel odd inside. Mostly warm...

_God,_ so warm inside.

“Yep.”

“How do you even skin a rakk, though? Have you ever done that before?” Rhys is full of questions when he’s happy and eager. The both of them lugged the heavy weight of the carcass together back to camp.

“Of course I have. It’s not that difficult, all you need is a sharp blade and a steady hand. And a will not to vomit around it. I’d prefer it if the meat was vomit free, thanks.”

After a very satisfying meal of rubbery meat and water, Rhys curls up beside Jack so he could get some sleep while the man keeps watch. Even as close to the bonfire as Rhys was without being near enough to burn, he’s still shivering and cold. Jack decides he had enough, he drapes his poncho over Rhys’ skinny frame, rubbing his big warm hands over Rhys’ arms to warm him up.

“Thanks, Jack…” Rhys sounds so awfully trusting, just like a child, watching him go to sleep.

Jack feels so oddly pleased from that.

 

* * *

 

The other vault hunters notice the closeness that Rhys and Jack have developed between each other after Jack’s general nastiness and frostiness towards the kid. Now though, their friendly bantering and bickering was so constant and so often that they just leave them to it most of the time, especially on their days off.

Jack always wanted to bring Rhys to new places. New bars, new hunting locations, even to Rhys’ first Pandoran titty bar. The look on the kid’s face was priceless. It’s all brand new experiences Jack wanted the kid to fondly remember, and the fact that he could show Rhys around, like he was his son felt so awfully fulfilling. Like something was slotted right in a space that was left behind, with his own tragedies in the past.

They’re in another off-beaten pub to get some grub and drinks before they head off to their ratty motel to sleep, after another full week of adventuring. Rhys had never been happier.

Rhys was just headed to the bar to order a drink for himself and a refill for Jack when a greasy, big bear of a bandit sidles up to him and asks creepily, “Hey, kid. How ya doin’?”

“I’m doing great, thanks.”

“Good, good.” The man pauses, ominously saying in that gruff tone of his voice, “You know, you’re really pretty.” Then he leans in, like he’s sniffing at Rhys, “Mm….You smell real good, don’t you?”

“Uh…” Rhys backs away a little.

The man hungrily takes in Rhys’ expression, “Aw fuck, you look fresh like a fuckin daisy too. How much for one night, huh?”

Rhys frowns, totally naïve.

“Huh? What do you mean?”

“Don’t play hard to get, come on. $100? $150? That good enough for ya? I got a room upstairs, you and I could get together, come to know each other a lil better…” The man reaches to grope Rhys’ taut little ass, squeezing with his big hands roughly, making Rhys yelp. “Get my mouth to get to know this tight lil ass a whole lot better, yeah? You like being eaten out, baby?”

Rhys’ face blushes beet red when that leaves no room to the imagination with his crude sexual words, indignant, and he pushes the guy away, exclaiming, “Look, I’m not a whore!”

“Come on, I said, don’t play hard to get!” The man growls, sounding like a damn creep. He squeezes Rhys in between his legs painfully hard over his dick and balls, making Rhys cry out and try to leap away--

_BAM!_

The man was ripped away from Rhys and Jack’s fist landed hard on his face, breaking his nose.

“Get the hell away from my son!” He snarls out.

Jack punches the man in his ribs, kicking him around like a rag doll while the man groans in pain.

As if that wasn’t enough, he grabs his revolver and shoots them man straight in his goddamn ugly face, going full out berserk at having witnessed someone paw at his cub like he’s for free...

“You alright, Rhys?” Jack checks up on Rhys, cupping his face with his big warm hands that stink like gunshot residue now, as if to size if he had any injuries.

“He squeezed my ass and my balls pretty tight…That hurt!” Rhys complains, hanging off the older man as Jack protectively guards him back to their booth. “He thought I was a whore! I’m still a _virgin_! I don’t look like a slut, do I?”

“Aw, that’s cute.” Jack says absently, before he realises what he just said, “What? You’re a virgin? Seriously?”

“Yeah. Mom was pretty protective of me, and I didn’t have much time to meet girls until recently,” he gestures to his general predicament.

“Sweetiekins, we have got to get you laid to a girl,” Jack shakes his head fondly.

“Do I have to marry them after?”

“Whaaaaaat?”

“Do I have to-”

“No! What? It’s just popping your cherry, and that’s it! It’s just something that happens to everyone.”

“That’s it?” Rhys asks, sounding confused and crestfallen. “I thought having sex was because you fell in love with someone, and you wanted to marry them after, and spend the rest of your lives together.”

Jack stared at Rhys for a while longer. How innocent was this kid?

“Damn, kid, you speak like you memorise chick flick scripts for a living sometimes.”

Rhys argued that he was raised that way, which people on Eden-5 were more conservative about sex, and drinking, and taking drugs, that he admits that it was a lot of culture shock to be on Pandora for all of these things to be okay. Even as he says all of these, Jack doesn’t know why he’s got this weird, overly protective feeling growing in his gut over the overall overwhelming purity of the kid before him.

He wanted to protect Rhys, like how he wanted to protect Angel before. How he couldn’t protect her, and her mother from murdering bandits, who’d stop at nothing for a taste of vengeance…

Angel had been just as innocent as Rhys was. Jack had made sure of it. And… _Angel_ would have been the same age as Rhys if she hadn’t passed away.

 

* * *

 

It was a mission on a dry arid piece of wasteland somewhere within the Dead Sands to retrieve old pirate’s treasure, and it was way too hot and humid for them to keep on driving when it felt like there was no end in sight.

When they realised the inviting, cool blue lake they were seeing in the distance wasn’t a mirage, but something real, _physical,_ the both of them decided that a nice dip in the water would make a reprieve from their adventuring.

Jack makes sure there was no sand worms or threshers around, walking ahead of Rhys, before realising the place was actually surprisingly clear of any threatening lifeform. With a whoop, Jack strips down to nothing, the both of them excitedly stripping down like children to take their first real bath in days.

Jack was halfway wading into the pool when he glances behind him, wondering if the kid was going to follow in, when he catches a glimpse of Rhys’ smooth, slender and pale body.

He doesn’t know why, but it’s like watching the boy undress for the first time.

He watches as the boy bends over, removing his boxers off his slim, narrow hips. His legs were long, slender with hardened muscles. He sees the perfect shape of his taut little tush and his peachy little asscheeks that just looked so cute, like it needed to be bitten, and the pinkness of his hole that he could see, for a smidgen of a moment…

Fuck.

He ogles the boy’s smooth pale skin, and then that small piece of information he recalled Rhys admitting to sneaks into his head from the other day… that the kid was a _virgin_.

From behind, he looks like a girl, if he just pretended he didn’t see the adorable looking, smooth pink balls he had hanging between his slim legs that were a testament to his maleness.

Was he that naturally smooth, or was he just…?

Jack gulps.

Was he so fucking hard up that the sight of the boy was just riling him up? In that case, he needed to take care of his priorities badly. He can’t be thinking of things like this. The kid’s so young, he could be his _son_ , but it’s like a veil’s been lifted off his eyes and he’s suddenly seeing things with clarity this time.

There was nothing feminine in the narrowness of his small hips, but for some reason he’s so drawn to that provocatively nude body. Something about him just looked sensual to him, it was so wrong...

Jack wasn’t even aware he’s staring so intently until the boy stands up and faces him, giving him a full frontal view of his cute pink dick. It looked so adorable, Jack wanted to just see how small it felt in his big palms, and pinch those sweet looking, puffy pink nubs on his chest. Jack looks away embarrassed, but the image is already burned in his mind, creating its perverted fantasy in his subconscious.

“Jack, don’t look at me, pervert!” Rhys’ voice rings loudly in his ears as the boy splashes water into the man’s face, and Jack has to pretend he hadn’t just slipped, and generously splashed Rhys back in return, a smile cracking on his lips despite it all.

Yeah, and thank fuck for small miracles, like his lower half already being submerged underwater so Rhys can’t see the semi he’s starting to sport.

“Yeah? Stop projecting your fantasies on me, honeybunch,” he says, sounding good-natured.

Rhys steps up to him and tackles him, climbing onto Jack’s back and playing with the older man just as innocently and carefree as he did at any time.

Jack tries not to think about it. But he can’t live with the thought of being pent up for someone like Rhys—that would be terrible! Maybe it’s just his dick being confused at how undeniably pretty the boy was, that he was just craving for sex _in general_. Just an itch he needed scratching!

It was a sombre journey back home, and Rhys doesn’t seem to mind or notice the man’s apparent silence. He fell asleep on the way home, and he looked so peaceful, charming and awfully sweet while he dozes off beside Jack.

He quickly made the decision to head off to the nearest titty bar when they returned home after their expedition, and he does it without telling anyone, keeping it a secret.

God, yeah—maybe his dick’s just confused. The kid was admittedly very pretty for a boy, beautiful with his soft smooth skin and his lovely smile, and just a sissy in his mannerisms and how he took extra care to maintain his appearance, and they’d just been spending a lot of time together. It’s only natural for him to get confused, he thinks, even if he’d never felt that way about any other young man he’d travelled with, during all those years of being a vault hunter.

The one thing that irked him about the whole attraction he’s suffering from was that Rhys was awfully, _awfully_ young, and the boy genuinely thought of him as a father figure. He’d slipped twice now, called him ‘dad’ and Jack didn’t bother to correct him yet.

That’s his fault, he thinks.

Jack finds a pretty girl, a petite brunette with short hair, an eighteen year old that night who he pays a good fat sum to fuck twice in a row and she sounds and looks _and feels_ like she’s enjoying him, and yeah, he enjoys fucking her too, trying to blow his pent up frustration over, fucking her from behind so he can’t see her face or her tits, and growling to her to let him refer to her as 'Rhys'… so even if she hesitated, she soon shut up from the money motivating her, yeah?

He’s feeling like he’s committing an atrocity. The wrong feeling that grew in his gut had now spread to the rest of his body and in his head.

He wonders if the kid would love to be fucked like that. Legs spread open like a whore, taking his cock deep inside his tight little asshole. He wonders if Rhys would suck his dick like the whore does, hungry and eager for more. He wonders how it’ll feel taking Rhys’ coveted _virginity_ , making the kid come with his dick inside.

He wants to know how Rhys would taste like. If he’s as sweet as he looks.

Rhys looks like a screamer. If Jack were to fuck him, he’d have to bring him somewhere no one could hear…

Fuck, he wanted to blow his load inside the kid. Make him have a taste of how a real man fucks him.

He thinks of Rhys when he orgasms, fucking the girl hard to thoughts of what he’d like to do to Rhys.

He's in this _too deep.  
_

 

* * *

 

Jack’s a little bit colder than usual when he returns back to Sanctuary and doesn’t talk that much to anyone else, just responding briskly to their greetings. He returns to the bar after a couple of days isolating himself, and he orders a pint of pale ale, nursing at it while his eyes roam around the tavern sharply, noticing all the familiar people around him.

Rhys was in a corner of the room, prettily flushed from drinking.

He’s been _drinking_? That was bad. Jack knew Rhys _never_ did that. He frowns, sitting up.

His boy’s sitting with Axton, sitting way too close to the other man, and Jack’s staring trying to determine what was going on when Axton leans in to speak to the boy, so closely to his ear and so intimate. Jack feels a hot flush of anger.

Who the hell does Axton think he is? Rhys is _his_.

His fucking boy, _Handsome Jack’s_ own…

Axton cups his boy’s face, looks like he’s murmuring sweet nothings into Rhys’ ear, making Jack grow madder. Rhys shudders, biting his bottom lip deliciously like he doesn’t know what that looks like to a man like him.

The blond man coaxes and leads Rhys outside, practically dragging him to the alleyway even as Rhys looks reluctant. At least that’s what it looked like to Jack.

Jack doesn’t know what’s overcoming him. All he’s thinking about is if he doesn’t stop Axton, Rhys’ purity, his _virginity_ , would be compromised. Fuck, Jack’s chance to pop the kid’s cherry for himself would be gone if he didn’t do something about it.

That just sent a hot flush down his spine, just staring at the two intently from behind the wall, debating what he should do…

He sees the blond man stroke his hand up under Rhys’ shirt, stroking the temptingly soft skin of his hips. Axton’s backing Rhys up against the wall outside, making the entire thing look like a cheap dirty hookup, making Rhys look like a goddamn slut as he’s felt up in some alleyway by a man he’s supposed to trust!

His eyes felt like they’re burning when he sees Rhys’ mouth is gaping open slightly with a moan as he’s being mouthed kisses on over his pretty, delicate neck, with his skin so soft he must taste like peaches and cream…

He watches as Axton’s knee slid in between Rhys’ legs, and rubs in between the swollen bump of his hard-on.

Then Axton kisses Rhys’ mouth, hard and biting.

Rhys made the sweetest, prettiest sounds. Jack couldn’t believe this.

Before he knows it, he’s storming over to where Axton was canoodling with _his_ boy… He rips the kid away from Axton’s grasp.

“What in the _fucking hell_ do you think you’re doing, Axton? Get the hell away from him. You’re taking advantage of him while he’s drunk!”

The blond man looked confused at Jack’s statement.

“No, that’s not how it looks like-!”

“Shut the hell up! He’s nineteen and way too young and good for you!”

“Jack, what are you doin’?” Rhys asks, voice obviously slurred and obviously drunk.

“Jack, calm down—it’s just a misunderstanding! I wasn’t taking advantage of him!”

“You were going to bring him up to your room, fuck him _once_ and then throw him away like garbage, weren’t you?” Jack accuses strongly, determined to make Axton admit _his_ perversion, when Jack’s own was worse. “For how long we’ve known each other… Don’t you dare think I don’t know your pattern, huh?!”

Axton looks like he’s been caught in crossfire, never wanting a confrontation with Jack before, especially over Rhys, so he tries to reason it with a, “It was just a bit of fun! I wasn’t about to do anything he didn’t want, come on, Jack!”

“No, you know it’s not going to be fun for him. He’s drunk! He’s never been drunk before in his life. I thought better of you, Axton!” he snarls out, holding himself back enough so he doesn’t end up in a fistfight with Axton not when Rhys was too drunk and needed to be taken care of at this moment. He’s practically dragging Rhys in his arms to bring him back to his room.

“Jack, don’t—it’s not nice to yell,” Rhys mumbles, his head buried in his neck, his lips dragging wetly over his neck.

He’s so drunk, he doesn’t even defend himself, or Axton’s behaviour. Jack’s stomach churns.

Jack tries his best not to react to the way his lips felt against his skin…

“You stick to orange juice from today onwards, Rhys,” Jack scolds, as he lays the boy down on the bed, and his hands trembled a little as he undid the boy’s jacket and took off his shoes for him.

“You’re—unh... you’re mean. I can handle some alcohol.” Rhys was yawning, stretching as his eyes drooped, and he fell asleep soon enough on Jack’s bed.

“Shut up,” he growls out to Rhys, even as the boy’s sleeping.

He had to take another walk. He’s boiling inside. There’s something inside him that’s aflame that he can’t seem to extinguish. How long has this been going on under his nose? He smoked two more cigarettes, before heading inside, sleeping on the ratty old couch, giving Rhys the space to sleep on Jack’s bed for tonight.

 

* * *

 

It was a hard mission this time. Nothing was too difficult by Jack’s standards, but this one felt like they’d both been through war together.

A man had threatened to kill his wife and daughters in a remote village, and the neighbours had asked for the vault hunter to come handle the situation because they just so happened to be closeby while this was happening. Jack’s mission was to save the day, and save the family. It would be easy.

Instead, what happened next was dramatic. The man had screamed that his family deserved to die with him. He’s raving and lunatic, saying that they had driven him mad, depending on him too much. Jack had just gotten about enough of the sad old fuck and had gotten in the deadly sniper shot from the window, and he’s about to pull the trigger when the man pulls out a heavy duty grenade in a split second—

He blows up his family along with him, like a selfish bastard.

They’re too late to salvage any innocent people at this point.

When they inspect the remains in the house, they realise that a baby, _an infant_ , had been killed in the blast too. Jack’s hands were shaking a little, he had to hide it. Rhys doesn’t know what to say. He might have cried too, he’s too emotionally drained to do anything else.

They were quiet all the way until they set up camp and a bonfire, resting for the night.

 Do you have a family, Jack?” Rhys asks him after a long while, huddled up next to the older man in front of the bonfire for warmth.

“Well, I used to.” Jack sighs heavily, taking a swig of Pandoran whiskey, “I had a wife and daughter.”

“What happened to them?” He asks curiously, “If you don’t mind me asking…”

“No, I don’t mind, kid.” Jack looks weary all of a sudden, his voice growing low like he’s holding the weight of the world on his shoulders as he speaks, “They got murdered by a bandit king I got involved in a nasty feud with.”

Rhys blinks, unable to do anything but reach over to place his hand over Jack’s, and the man smiles forcedly, squeezing Rhys’ fingers gently. His expression reads, ‘I’m telling you this because I trust you.’

“I’m sorry…”

“Don’t be. It was inevitable, I was stupid and foolish.” Looking at Rhys now, he says, “She would have been your age if she was still alive.”

“What was her name?”

“Her name was Angel.”

The bonfire crackles as they remain silent.

“Let’s just go to sleep, kiddo,” he says, voice a little gravelly, capping the whiskey bottle back and putting out his cigarette.

Rhys curls up alone, but it was far too cold—and wordlessly goes over to Jack, curling up against the broader man and sighing quietly as he feels his big, strong arms envelop him instinctively and give him the warmth he wants as he’s lulled to sleep.

 

* * *

 

 

The motel room was ratty, but at least it was double bed fit for two and a place to shower.

Rhys on the other hand had totally gotten over all of his initial self-consciousness, and seemed to have decided that stripping while he’s around Jack was normal. Jack might have not noticed it at all before, but it was all he could think of at the moment.

He doesn’t know what Jack’s thinking when he takes off his clothing, bending over and giving Jack an unwarranted perverted show as he steps into the shower and doesn’t bother to close the door.

Rhys is up to his usual antics, singing in the shower and humming some dumb pop tune that was normally so annoying, but Jack had just gotten used to his nonsense he just doesn’t say anything about it.

What he’s doing with his hands though… was another thing altogether. He’s staring at Rhys, at the beautiful boy with his beautiful skin and gorgeous long legs and how smooth and perfect and irresistibly pretty he was, his mind racing a million miles a minute, because why was he _fucking staring_?

The kid’s body was still pale and slender, though substantially more toned than before. His body was well taken care of, Jack knows Rhys pampers himself so obviously, wondering if the boy was really that fruity but it just so appears that he liked to take care of himself, while still talking about wanting to meet girls at the same time…

It was endearing. But it was so damn hard when he’s watching the kid shower, rub in between his legs, washing that cute cock and balls, rivulets of water flowing over his naked body and slender hips.

Jack had to adjust himself, and try his best not to look again.

He’s starting to hate himself for this.

 

* * *

 

He has to go scratch his 'itch' at another whorehouse, leaving Rhys alone for the evening. He comes back to the motel room stinking of another young girl’s perfume, this time—a barely legal girl, who’d only just turned 18 and he chose her only because her legs were long and she’s slender and pretty and she resembled the object of his heart’s desire…

Jack feels disgusting. He feels like nobody would understand, so he never reveals his odd, perverted feelings to anyone. They wouldn’t understand.

Still, he still has to return back to the motel room, and sleep in the same bed as the kid he’s lusting after, and scent him up whether he liked it or not…

“Jack?” Rhys’ voice was small and sleepy when he peers around, hearing the door open.

“Yeah.”

“Where did you go?” Rhys asks, looking at Jack from where he’s cosy looking, dressed in a sweater looking as cute as a honeybee.

“Somewhere.” He says gruffly, then heads over to where Rhys was and decidedly roughs him up a little by rubbing over his back and stroking his hair, hearing the boy yawn. “Go back to sleep.”

 

* * *

 

They were in another bar this time, post-mission, and they’re celebrating their riches with drinks more and more throughout the night before they even head off to another shitty motel room to sleep in.

Rhys must be drunker than Jack thinks he is if he’s just getting up with liquid courage and announcing, “Jack, I’m going to dance!” like he’s prepared to make a fool out of himself.

“Don’t hurt yourself, kiddo!” Jack says half-heartedly, watching over the boy as he goes to the dance floor, dancing like a buffoon alone, jumping and wiggling his arms around in the air like an idiot. His hair gets tousled about with his movements, and he’s just so undeniably pretty.

Jack just watches amusedly, but as he grows steadily drunker… something just changes in the atmosphere.

Jack’s watching his boy. His eyes were just drawn to his slender frame, watching the sensual flash of skin of his collarbones and his neck, his hips moving deliberately fluidly.

He feels like he’s watching a private dance meant for his eyes only, and sweet young Rhys was the star of it. The heady, slow bass filled music was certainly fucking with his mind, and he blamed whatever local brewed narcotics that was mixed in the cocktail he’d ingested. He feels like a fucking animal, drooling over his own foster son figure. He feels disgusting. So filthy and wrong.

But he can’t peel his eyes away from the boy. He _can’t_. He’s fought this too long.

Rhys was moving his sweet little hips swaying to the music, slow and sensual to the slow beat. From behind, the kid moved so erotic, like he’s speaking a separate language with his body, with his hips, the curve of his ass to him… tempting Jack with his unclaimed innocence.

The kid’s so innocent yet he looks so carnal and debauched, tempting Jack with his gorgeous, delicate body, the arousing, erotic movements of his slim hips. He’s been protecting Rhys like one of his own flesh and blood, and yet… he’s here thinking of defiling him. Waiting for the right moment to pluck him like fresh ripe fruit.

This had been going on within him for much too long, that it’s starting to become torture.

Jack watches with perverted interest as he watched Rhys roll his hips to the slow rhythm of the music, his own dick definitely peaking and showing interest in the unwittingly lascivious show the kid put on.

Fuck. He hadn’t expected this.

Rhys was supposed to be his foster son, not feel like an itch he needed to scratch with his desires, Rhys meant more to him than that.

He wonders how the boy’s slender hips would feel under his hands if he just went in and roamed his hands over them. He watches the purplish-blue lighting over Rhys’ soft skin, the way the boy’s lips were parted, the glistening of sweat on his skin that looked like diamonds.

Jack’s so concentrated on watching Rhys that he barely notices a burly man approaching his boy. That’s when the spell’s broken.

The man was touching Rhys over the sides of his body, the boy looking at the stranger, cheeks flushed, smiling politely and embarrassedly but looking out of his depth as he’s touched by another person that’s _not Jack._

Rhys’ eyes meet Jack’s from across the room, asking.

Before he knows it, he’s heading straight towards Rhys, grabbing the kid away by his arm in a bruising grip from the other man who dared touch him. He snarls at the man to leave, and upon the possessive, terrifying look on Handsome Jack’s face, the man quickly leaves them alone with a stuttered apology.

“ _Jaaack?_ ” Rhys slurs a little, smiling at Jack with unrestrained pleasure as he wraps his slender, sinewy arms around Jack’s shoulders.

The kid’s lost in the haze of alcohol and low, thumping music.

“Yeah, baby boy?” he breathes against Rhys’ ear as he brings their hips closer.

His hands wander over the slimness of Rhys’ body, touching over his back, his hips, his rump, squeezing it, thinking about how _dirtybadwrong_ this was…

Jack leans in, breathing in Rhys’ scent. He smells so good, like peaches and cream. He wanted a taste. He wanted it so bad, he leans in, nosing against Rhys’ neck, his breath hot against his skin. He presses his lips against the boy’s skin, making the boy pull away, squealing a little bit with laughter.

“Dad, what are you doing?” Rhys giggles, clueless and drunk, the word slipping out.

_Dad._

Jack swallows, pulling away from Rhys as he bites out, “Nothing.”

Fuck, he couldn’t do it. He can’t.

 

* * *

 

 

When morning comes along, Rhys was still sleeping the alcohol fuelled night off. Jack watches over him as he lay beside him on the shared bed. He leans in to press a feather light kiss on his forehead, watching his pretty face scrunch up a little before relaxing.

Rhys could really break his heart if he wanted to.

Jack went to the balcony and lounged in the sunchair, watching the sun rise with a cigarette in hand and some beer, when he eventually hears Rhys wake up and yawn.

He heard the sound of his bare feet padding on the floor, stopping next to Jack.

Then the sunchair creaks and dips when Rhys decides sliding on top him was a good idea, slipping into his arms.

Rhys nuzzles his face against Jack’s neck, breath hot and lips soft and Jack’s mind goes blank.

“What are you doing, kid?” he asks him gruffly, palming roughly over his back, so tempted to go lower, but he just pats him then requests none too politely, “C’mon, get off me.”

“Well, you weren’t in bed, so…” Rhys peers up at him with sleepy looking, adorable doe eyes. It made him feel weird. Insane… and fucking perverted.

“You can’t keep doing this, Rhys.” Jack interrupts, forcibly hoisting the boy off him, making the kid pout.

“Do what?”

“This. This whole…getting all up in my space thing. It’s not cool.”

“Oh…” Rhys looks crestfallen and sad. “Why?”

“Because it’s just weird, okay? You’re supposed to be like my foster son or something, not—whatever _this_ is,” Jack bites out, wanting the kid to feel it.

And he does. Rhys looks awfully confused and like he’s been scolded. Jack can’t stand watching Rhys look so sad, look so dejected.

“I-? Okay, I’ll stop if you want, but we’ve been doing this sort of thing since forever and you never said a thing.” Rhys just backs away, watery eyed, looking chastised.

Jack grasps his wrist firmly, growling out a, “God—just _wait,_ kiddo.”

Standing up, he reaches to cup his face in his hand, stroking over the awfully soft, delicate skin.

Then his hands move over the sides of his body, over his hips with a definite perverted way that gets Rhys blushing, his hands cupping over the boy’s small ass, squeezing down on them that gets the boy gasping and he grips Jack’s wrist.

“J-Jack?” he asks confusedly at the very, _very_ inappropriate touch.

Rhys gasps when Jack’s manhandling him so Rhys was pushed down into the sunchair, forced under him. The kid’s legs gets forcibly spread to accommodate him, and the kid has decency to look embarrassed, trying to close his thighs sweetly.

“Jack, what are you doing?” he sounded a little bit scared for it.

Jack can’t speak, or his voice was going to waver. He won’t be able to answer him. He looks at Rhys with a certain animalistic hunger in his eyes, his hands roaming over the kid’s soft, lean body, stroking his inner thigh and making his muscles tense.

“You’re just so-” Jack grits his teeth a little, and demonstrates his lust, pinning the kid there with an iron grip on his small shoulders as he palms the kid’s semi-arousal in between his legs.

Rhys makes a small high pitched noise, face flushing red as he cries out, “Jack!” whining as his big hand moves pervertedly over his shorts and cups his dick, jerking him off through the fabric of his shorts.

Jack’s just observing him with dark lust written in his eyes, just palming and gripping around the kid’s young dick, watching as Rhys writhes and moans helplessly, making sounds that were like music to his ears.

It doesn’t take long for Rhys to cry out and come into his shorts, under the man’s rough ministrations.

“Jack?” Rhys looks flushed and trembly, the man’s breathing laboured as he starts to grip and pull down Rhys’ shorts off his skinny hips…

He sees it. The kid’s cute, pink dick and his balls and his wetness covering it, his definite boy-ness, and the teasing peek of his tight pink hole.

Jack’s so fucking hard. His prick’s never been harder watching Rhys, and the kid’s definitely responding well, not pushing him away or saying no when Jack runs a finger over the base of his dick, dragging some sticky cum along his skin.

He pushes his big fingers into the boy’s mouth. Rhys sucks around them like he doesn’t know what else to do, pink cheeked and eager to please.

Jack watches his pink little boy pussy clench and twitch when his big fingers rub over the smooth scrunched up tight _virginal_ hole. He positively growls.

“Dammit, Rhys, why is it that whenever anyone lays their hands on you, I just get this strange feeling like I just wanna wring their stupid necks, because you’re---ugh, you’re-”

Rhys shudders a little at the tone of his voice, looking at Jack questioningly, and like the huge fucking pervert he was, he starts undoing his pants and belt buckle, tugging down his boxers, showing Rhys the huge, aroused girth of his dick for the boy to see.

“You wanna touch it, baby boy?” his voice gravelly and rough sounding.

Rhys is too meek to do or say anything, just looking at Jack with big eyes and his red blushing cheeks, still spread underneath Jack looking like a damn treat.

He grabs the kid’s smooth hand, making it wrap around his dick and his own hand guiding Rhys how he likes it. He grunts and their combined movements make the sunchair creak, leaking precum over his smooth hands and Rhys’ thighs were quivering trying to close his legs when he gets hot all over again just from jacking off the older man above him.

When Jack shoots he manhandles Rhys down so he can cum over the boy’s face, watching as spunk decorates his cheek, lips and chest, growling with some feral sort of lust and the boy just reaching down to jerk himself off timidly, his arousal evident.

“Nngh…”

“Fuck, kid, you look so goddamn tasty, don’t you?”

Rhys gets manhandled onto all fours, gripping helplessly against the chair and it creaks as Jack hungrily mouths over the boy’s taut, pink little asshole clenching in on itself hard. The kid nuts all over his own hand and the chair, slumping tiredly as Jack stops his assault on Rhys, observing the kid’s wrecked state, before leaving to go take a shower without inviting the boy.

 

* * *

 

They don’t talk about that incident on their next trip the following day, because they’re busy people and they’re given a mission where they’re joined in by Zer0 and Maya for them to head off to the Frozen Wastes to retrieve specific parts for a machine, commissioned by Dr Zed.

It’s a cold night, so Zer0 and Maya were curled up asleep against each other and it was unearthly quiet besides quiet snores and sounds of slow and steady breathing and Rhys and Jack are close together, huddled up for warmth.

Rhys finally asked in a small voice, “Jack? Could we go to sleep too?” and Jack nods, shifting their sleeping bags closer and leaning in to get in behind Rhys, wrapping his arms around the youth.

The kid was almost about to fall asleep when he _feels_ it, the man nuzzling over his nape and feeling his hot breath against his skin as he grows hard against Rhys’ bum, the hard impressive lump pressed up against him where he could feel it.

“J-Jack—” he whimpers, only to be cut off with Jack’s palm pressed against Rhys’ mouth, trying to quiet him while he humps against the boy’s taut little ass.

The quiet clinking sound of Rhys’ belt is heard, and then his pants and boxers are tugged down too, exposing his rump to the man behind him holding him in place. Jack just undoes the front, taking his thick hard dick out, and slides it in between his thighs lewdly.

Jack humps against Rhys’ nutsack, shifting him forward a little as the boy’s pushed forward with each insistent thrust, trying his best not to be noisy or whimper as Rhys shamefully reaches to touch himself while he gets fucked between his thighs by a man for his first time…

“Nng-nhn-mpgh-“ Jack ended up pushing fingers into the kid’s mouth so he could shut up, his breathing growing a bit erratic, his pulse racing in his ears as he fucks the kid between his legs, and feels Rhys tighten them on his dick, and it felt like a goddamn slice of _heaven_ when he nuts all over the kid’s thighs and his little ass, the boy writhing there looking destroyed as he finishes all over his hands.

They clean up, pretend like they did nothing at all, and Rhys feels prickly and overheated feeling Jack still pressed up against his back, reaching to toy with Rhys, stroking over his soft, flat stomach, and moving up to pinch his nipples like they were as sensitive as a girl’s… and they were. Rhys can’t act cool and collected, not when he knows what Jack wants out of him. Rhys keeps quiet despite his pleasure, not wanting to be found out, suffering through the man’s ministrations.


	3. Chapter 3

“So what are you gonna do once we get 10 million dollars, Jack?” He asks the older man, as they trudged along the way to the Maliwan headquarters with their digistructs on, weapons hidden under their coats and Maliwan military gear.

“Well, that’s gonna go to my retirement fund,” he says, joking and winking at Rhys, “I’m gonna retire by 50 to some peaceful beach house with a gorgeous view, plenty of women serving my every need and desire… eating better shit than rakk and skag meat every living day I’ve got.”

Rhys snickers, “ _You,_ retiring? And actually wanting a peaceful life? You’re joking aren’t you?”

“Hah! You got me there. I ain’t doing any of that retiring shit. If I’m gonna go, baby, I’ll go out with a bang.”

“I don’t expect anything less.”

They trudged in to the main busy lobby, definitely not attracting any attention at all with all the Maliwan staff around the area. “Look out for anyone who’s careless enough you can pickpocket their passes from,” Jack says.

Annoyed, Rhys just bites back, “Jack, I know the plan! You’ve said it about a hundred couple times.” He scans the area, before moving in on his target.

Rhys approaches the most unsuspecting woman in the corner, striking up a conversation with her about it being ‘very humid outside’, and her agreeing that it makes her hair frizzy and dry, and they start talking about hair treatments before his hand sneakily reaching to grab her pass. He slips it into his pocket, and Jack manages to pickpocket his own from a big burly dude who looks like security.

Rhys ends his conversation with the woman with a smile when he sees Jack’s done. Once they’ve secured their passes, they make it past the security, and enter.

“Where to next?”

Rhys looks up the Maliwan base map from his arm and says, “It’s on Level Access B2. It’s underground. C’mon.”

They end up trailing after an important looking executive, but taking the route to the left, crawling through the vent to get to the garage area that had an access door straight to the Level Access B2. The plan was well rehearsed enough. They needed more support when they were outside, but while they were on the inside, the two of them was substantial enough to infiltrate the area and transfer the very expensive data without attracting much heat.

Once they were inside Level Access B2, Rhys quickly walked towards the door to the left that read ‘Memory Storage’ and hacked into it with his program, impressing Jack with how fancy that shit looked, and how fast he could crack the PIN code of the door, entering the room with a click.

“That’s pretty cool, I gotta admit,” Jack says begrudgingly, looking around inside when Rhys plugged himself in with his port with a wire and got to work.

“I know, I know. You’re jealous.” Rhys snarks a little, his brows scrunched up with focus.

The both of them heard footsteps from the other side of the hallway.

“Jack! You gotta give me some time to do this. 5 minutes! I’m already in with the program. I just need to transfer the data into me.”

“Got it.”

Once the person walked past the hallway and into him Jack quickly hit the person in the back of his head, making him slump over unconscious quietly against the wall, waiting for Rhys’ signal.

“You done yet?” Jack calls out.

“In a couple more seconds!” Rhys waits for the file to finish uploading, watching the screen go 97%.... 98%.... 99%.... 100%! Bingo! He starts removing the cord from his port when the siren blares with the security breach.

Rhys grabs his SMG, fully prepared to shoot his way out of this one with Jack.

“Jack, let’s go here! The map shows it’s gonna lead outside.”

“Then why the hell didn’t we take this shortcut in the first place, dum dum?!”

“The map doesn’t fully load everything it’s got automatically, you know! Connection’s bad! And this data’s encrypted from outside!”

Jack leaps to his feet and whips out his pistol, signalling for Rhys to get a move on. He is hungry to shoot at some people on the way out, most of this mission has been mind-numbing and watching Rhys get all technical.

The siren is pulsing nauseatingly through his skull, he feels like his brain is about to explode.

"Let's fuckin move! Come on!"

The party’s just started, the cavalry comes in a matter of a few minutes, soldiers getting into position getting in the offensive and Rhys just ends up springing into action, taking cover when they’re shot at and he shoots at a man who’s about to shoot him, getting him right in the head in a critical shot.

They’re gonna have to push forward, and he quickly throws a MIRV Torgue grenade to clear out the room and the child grenades explode and kills the oncoming men, blasting their limbs here and there in a very gory fashion.

“Keep moving!” Jack growls, pushing Rhys forward while he takes out several of the men with a few precision shots with his revolver from the back, blocking off the doorway so they could be held off in just a while, then yanks the vent open, getting in first.

Once they’re on the other side of the vent and it’s leading outside, he realises Maliwan’s really packing in a lot of heat.

They bring in their big guns, their soldiers, and Jack waits for his shield to recharge, breathing heavily as he calls up Axton.

“Get into position and get us! I’m in the vent, looks like it’s in the upper West wing. I see a tower with some security turrets on it from where we are.”

“On my way!”

Jack hears gunfire from outside, backing away from the vent, covering Rhys first.

“We’re here!” Axton yells through the comm, hearing the consistent rapid gunfire of a machine gun of a bandit technical—

“Baby, if I die, everything I own goes to you!” He swears to Rhys, then kicks the vent open with a war shout and kills every single soldier running straight at them.

“You’re not dying, and neither am I!” Rhys shouts in the midst of deafening gunfire. He’s not gonna be ended here, not yet!

Rhys shoots the defence turrets dead, and they run towards the bandit technical where Salvador and Axton are waiting, and Salvador’s just having a real fun time blasting all the approaching soldiers from the gunner seat, laughing wildly at watching them splatter into pieces.

“COME AT ME, PENDEJOS!” He hollers, and they finally reach the vehicle—and they sped off into the distance at a high boosted speed, all of them so pumped up at actually getting away with their first huge mission in a while.

Rhys’ _first huge_ mission he partook in, and it was successful!

“We did it!”

“We sure fuckin’ did, Rhys!”

Rhys laughs and hugs Jack like the man’s his teddy bear, and Jack laughs and ruffles the kid’s hair with affection glowing in his eyes.

 

* * *

 

Upon sending off the information uploaded from Rhys’ port and collecting their payment, they head off to a far enough location that no one was going to come finding for them, and they celebrated big with their earnings, with food and booze and cigarettes in excess.

Jack’s got his arm slung protectively around Rhys’ shoulder, careful not to let Rhys drink too much. He’s got a cigarette in his mouth, and Rhys just thinks Jack looks so _, so handsome_ , it’s so unreal the man’s this close to him. That they’ve basically had sex twice, at this point…

Not that Rhys had been counting, of course.

“—So this one puta, right, he thinks he’s some kinda gangster or something, screaming ‘say hello to my little friend’ cos he’s on a helicopter! And it’s got not one, not two, but FOUR turrets fixed on that goddamn helicopter of his! And he’s mowing down the entire bandit village, even the pet skags and pet threshers are getting annihilated, and the puta takes videos of the whole scene as the client asked to, flies back, gets told he didn’t complete the job!”

Jack snorts at the story, Salvador continuing, “When the hijo de puta comes back, the main fucking bandit he was supposed to kill—that’s part of his goddamn mission anyway, bitch never read his instructions, is no longer there! You know why? Coz he escaped! That means that some fucking asshole killed an entire bandit village for nothing, because he thinks it was funny to go on a killer helicopter turret rigged mission just to feel like he’s goddamn Scarface for that one time!”

“I was only around Rhys’ age! Cut me some slack!” Axton protests.

“How old are you now, huh chico?” Salvador asks Rhys.

“Er, turning 20 ne next month.” Rhys answers, looking a little bit _(a lot)_ green at the story, still trying to stomach some of their wilder stories, but anyway…

“You were 26, Axton! You’re supposed to be more mature. Fuck’s sakes. And Rhys here isn’t even on the level of crazy you were. He’s a good kid! So don’t compare yourself to him.”

“I was on dope, dammit!” Axton knocks back his drink, slamming the shot glass on the bar without so much a wince, “I’ll blame the _drugs,_ not myself. I was only getting used to Pandoran dope. Shit’s intense.”

Jack snorts.

“You on dope now, huh cabron?” Salvador jeers.

“Nah! You killed off an entire clan too, didn’t you?” Axton jeers back, “Psh, kinda normal for us, don’tcha think? Don’t tell me you forgot how _Jack_ killed someone that one time… with a _spoon_!”

The three men cracked up boisterously at their own inside story except for Rhys.

“What?!” Rhys asks, still looking green, his expression like one of morbid curiosity. They snorted; the kid’s still so green as a vault hunter, he really didn’t know much of how cruel the big boys could be if they wanted to.

“I scooped his eyeballs out with a goddamn spoon, not like he didn’t deserve it! Dumb bitch. He squealed like a goddamn pig, running around bumping into shit, screaming ‘I’ll stab you!’ and ‘You’re gonna die from me killin’ you!’ Fuckin’ dumbass. Shit was so funny when he fell from his own goddamn window!”

They all laughed raucously like it’s the funniest shit ever, and it really wasn’t so funny to Rhys.

“Ahaha—He went fucking _splat_ , didn’t he?!” Axton laughs loudly, almost choking on his own spit.

“Wasn’t that Herbie?!” Salvador laughs into his ale.

“Ahaha, yeah! Moron kept pet threshers in his backyard. I mean, if you can’t just think on the level of dumbassery it’ll take for someone to actually do that, and think they’ll never get eaten by them one day! We fed his brains to the starved lil pets. They friggin’ ate him up, and cleaned him off the bone!” Jack crows.

“They was ugly…but kinda cute.” Salvador agrees. Rhys doesn’t agree.

“Ugh… _Jack,_ m’trying to keep my drink down here…”

“Aw c’mon, kiddo! Don’t tell me you’ve never committed a crime before back on Eden-5. What’s the worst thing you’ve ever done, huh? Don’t tell me preschool grade shit like cheating on a test. C’mon. Spill.” Jack asks, ruffling Rhys’ hair.

“Uh…”

“Do it or I’ll make you drop 20 right here, right now,” Jack threatens pleasantly, grinning playfully at Rhys.

“Fine! Uh… you know how Eden-5’s strict with their laws, right?”              

“Yeah.”

“Uh-uh. So there was this one time, me and my buddy Vaughn managed to gain access to this one cool movie you were in, ‘The Gunslinger’, you were a cowboy in it. The movie’s pretty old, but we never got to see it until then, you know? It’s banned in Eden-5 for being a hardcore snuff film and full of explicit _pornography_ …”

“Pfft, haha yeah. They were really letting me run around killing bandits and shit! Porkin’ hot chicks with big tits and fat asses. Hell yeah. That was a fuckin ride…”

“I remember that, yeah!” Axton sniggers, “You got your dick wet onscreen with Moxxi—”

“Man, we got so many applications to become vault hunters that year,” Salvador laughs heartily.

“Hah, yeah I remember. We only sussed out two decent vault hunters, and they died the same year…But just…don’t— _don’t_ fuckin remind me of that trash Mox. I—hurgh, put my dick in her. I was a kid back then, yeah?” Jack shudders. “Continue!”

Rhys’ face reddened when he continued his story. “So… uhm… we watched it and it was… itwasthe _bestthingever.”_ He rushes out.

“Haha, that your first foray into porn, huh?” Jack sniggers, and from the look on Rhys’ face… yes. Yes it was. Jack’s so goddamn smug.

“I looked like a goddamn dream, didn’t I?” as if asking for the kid to stroke his ego, as if he doesn’t do that every single fuckin’ night they had together…

“Yeah, you did. I guess.” Rhys interjects sarcastically. “For a doofus.”

“You probably jacked it to my dick every single night…” Jack teases.

Rhys grew even more tomato red, because nope, no sire, that _wasn’t true at all…_

He continues, _“So,_ I needed to know more about you and how vault hunting really is like, just because no one can talk about it where I came from… it’s like, some taboo topic. Nobody brings up what you guys do. It’s frowned upon and there’s a whole lotta laws against what you guys do on Eden-5… All the murdering…and scooping out _eyeballs_ …”

Rhys turns green again.

Axton sniggers.

“So anyway, even though I used several VPNs and firewall unblockers and ran it through my own programmes, I still got found out. I was arrested and taken away from my house, cuffed and I was taken to court. They were about to sentence me! So I ran away, grabbed all the gear I could get from home and all my money and just took the next shuttle. And it was to Pandora. So here I am now!”

The three of them looked at Rhys shocked, their mouths wide open as they stared at Rhys after his story.

“You mean… girly lil Rhysie, ran away from Eden-5’s strict ass government and a court sentencing, because you were looking up vault hunter propaganda and _me_?” Jack asks, as if to clarify, like something about that stood out to him.

“Umm… yeah?”

“Wow. Kid’s got titanium balls, I gotta admit.” Salvador says.

“Yeah. Mad respect.” Axton agrees.

They all toasted to Rhys’ story and achievement, begrudgingly admitting what Rhys did was pretty radical.

Meanwhile, Jack just keeps staring at Rhys a certain hungry, goddamn proud way that Rhys felt a little uncomfortable with.

After a little bit of chit chat, Jack’s getting up, slinging his arm off Rhys and leaving, patting Rhys’ back as if to ask him come along too, saying with an exaggerated yawn and stretch, “I’m just gonna go to bed, I’m deadbeat. See you guys in the morning.”

Rhys follows, “Uh, yeah. Me too. Goodnight!”

He walks in companionable silence back to the motel room with Jack, the man just barely brushing against him, but when the door clicks shut and locks, he doesn’t expect for Jack to shove him up against the wall and push his mouth brusquely against Rhys’ in a rough kiss hungrily, properly kissing the boy for the first time.

“ _Mmf_ -!”

Rhys moans against Jack’s mouth, feeling like his body’s turned to liquid when the man’s kissing him so rough and possessive.

“God, kid, music to my ears,” he growls out, sounding breathy and turned on, “Getting into trouble coz of me, huh? Looking up things about me when it could get you into trouble… heh, you were _really_ jackin’ it to me, huh baby boy?”

“N-No I wasn’t!” Rhys squeaks his protest, making Jack grin wolfishly.

“Yeah, sure.” He teases Rhys, lecherously raking his eyes over Rhys.

Jack practically tore his clothes off, and Rhys cries out and makes Jack stop so he doesn’t ruin more buttons. The man complies for once, letting Rhys undress on his own, pulling off his clothes to show off his soft, pale creamy skin and the tattoos on his slender body he’s been worshipping in secret with his hands and mouth behind closed doors, eyeing him so hungrily.

“That’s so fucking hot, Rhysie.” Is what Jack says, “Little naïve babe, with a huge boner for me, enough to be breakin’ rules for me! Stickin’ it to your government in my name, huh? I know how fuckin’ crazy Eden-5 security is, I’ve been there once, never again. It’s pretty impressive you managed to get out of there…”

“Uhuh,” Rhys responds, brain turned to mush. His voice gets a little high pitched, followed by a yelp when he’s grabbed and manhandled down onto the bed, legs spread so Jack could get in between, a hint of dark lust in his eyes that told what he intended for the kid next.

Jack hastily took off his own clothes, getting naked and carelessly flinging his clothes to the floor before he grabs the kid’s thighs wide open and holds him there. He eats out the kid, pushing his fingers and tongue over and inside him heatedly, even though he’s still sore from getting fingerfucked so hard and frantic by Jack last night.

Rhys had been squeezing his sore, wet hole after, touching it experimentally, pushing Jack’s wet, messy load inside when the man had fallen asleep.

He remembers how blushing hot he felt when he recalls what he’d done, without the man knowing.

The kid’s been getting it every single night they were alone, Jack’s hunger for the kid building up with every single hungry hasty fuck, just fucking between his thighs, using his mouth on the kid’s tight _virginal_ boycunt, being so, so patient with him, the kid’s so _tight_ he cries out so loud every time he gets fingerfucked. Jack knew it’ll take a while for the kid to be able to take his dick. But the reward was definitely worth the wait…

He’s made the kid suck on his dick he’s better at it now, the kid’s so eager to please. He’s sucked on his fingers like he’s hungry for them, and those filthy things were steadily progressing into things like penetration with his thick fingers and that’s about the furthest they’ve done. They’ve fucked a lot in that sense behind closed doors, and no one knew what was happening between them two.

Jack thinks that it’s better to be kept that way. God only knows how his reputation would go down the drain for screwing a kid that was old enough to be his son…

Jack really, really wants to fuck the kid right now when he knows how deep the kid’s idolisation ran. He wanted to pop the kid’s cherry. Taking his goddamn virginity that he’s been coveting for. It’s gonna be worthwhile. Something he’s gonna remember for a very, very long time…

Rhys whimpers at the hungry ministrations, not knowing of the man’s terrible intentions, his cute dick leaking and twitching, hard.

Jack grabs the packet of lube, slicking his big fingers with the fluid, getting them wet. This was familiar to Rhys. The kid moans, helps to keep his legs open. He pushes them inside Rhys, one by one, stretching him wider and wider going slow and hot and making the kid whimper and cry out when it hits his prostate. Jack’s gritted his teeth, his dick so goddamn hard.

“Ahh, ngnh, oh, _Jaaack!”_ he whimpers, toes curling, face flushed and looking like the wet dream he was. He’s still a bit sore, but it’s such a turn on for Rhys to get Jack so worked up.

Jack licks his lips. He knows what he was, a horny fucking pervert who wants to mount the boy so badly. He’s drawn this out for way too long, he needs it. He slows down while he’s got three big fingers pushed inside Rhys’ tight little bum, his digits stretched wide around his pink little fuckhole and making the kid whine and squeal with each drag against his spot.

Rhys is sobbing a little, sluttily pinching and tugging his own nipples, hips arching up against Jack’s wrist.

The kid looks so fucking tasty, his mouth waters. He’s feels like a fucking wolf, a goddamn predator. He wants in so bad.

“You like that, sweetheart?”

“Nnh, yeah, I _love_ it…”

“Feels good, baby boy?”

Rhys nods, shaky, biting on his bottom lip sweetly.

Jack gulps a little at the anticipation. “You trust me?”

Rhys answers by wrapping his legs around Jack’s hips, looking like a goddamn wet dream, a fucking sight for sore eyes for how fresh and _beautiful_ he looks. For months he’s been holding out, finding different ways to screw the kid senseless without ‘tainting’ him. And now Jack’s like a cork screwed up tight, he wants to fuck Rhys so goddamn bad he’s about to burst.

“I trust you,” he tells him, looking like he’s bracing for what happens next, sweet and adorable, and Jack melts. Maybe he feels a bit more of that monster inside him rear it’s head too, but he doesn’t tell.

He kisses the boy rough and possessive, marking his neck with kisses and love bites that it’ll raise some curious looks later on, when anyone sees those marks on him…

“Here we go, kiddo…” he growls, voice sounding roughened with lust.

Jack slicks his thick girth up, making Rhys scramble against the headboard when he sees that Jack’s about to screw him, feeling the thick head of his dick press up against his asshole. It screws up _tight_ , and he can see it. Jack growls.

“Jack—wait, _wait,_ I don’t know if I wanna do that!” Rhys whines, sounding a little scared.

Jack _loves_ that tone of voice coming from his boy.

“Shh, quiet, it’s okay…”

Rhys whimpers as he’s kissed and distracted, his cute dick toyed with until his toes curl. His legs were forcibly held open by Jack’s strong hands, his dick pressed up against his fuckhole once more.

He fucks in slow, popping the kid’s cherry for the first time, growling as he sticks in in, stretching him wide around the head of his dick.

Fuck. It was _everything_ he ever wanted, and even better.

And just as he’s anticipated, the boy’s so tight, so hot and so sinfully good, that waiting all this while for this very moment was worth it all.

Jack humps into him, slow at first, trying to rein in his desire to just screw the kid senseless for the first time, but he fails quickly. He _can’t_ stand it.

Their fuck devolves into something rough and animalistic, the kid crying out loudly as he’s fucked for the first time in his life. He grows so fucking _noisy_ and Jack’s rough, hungry thrusts making the bed thump and creak noisily against the walls as the boy was bred for the first time in his life. The boy’s face was flushed red, and he looked so desirable, just everything he’d been looking for.

Jack tugs at a pretty, puffy pink nipple, sucks on the other one, strokes over the boy’s quivering chest and tummy and then runs a finger over the base of the kid’s straining dick leaking with precum over his stomach.

Rhys has got his legs spread like some kinda _whore,_ Jack thinks, getting his virginity taken for the first time by a man like him, and Jack _loves_ it, he just rails into Rhys harder, making the kid wail with pleasure and cry out his name, clinging to him and around his dick tightly.

Rhys nuts first, and he feels the kid squeeze his sweet boy pussy down on him, like he wants to milk him dry. Jack groans and mind grows hazy with lust clouding his judgement, and he humps into him harder like a dog in heat and making the kid _scream._

He spills thick and hot and _deep_ inside the kid, growling low in his throat as he bred him full.

“F-Fuck, there we go, sweetheart…” Jack groans, voice roughened with sex, sounding ruined and helpless.

Rhys moans in the aftermath, looking way too flushed and beautiful for Jack to take. His ass squeezes down on his spent dick once more, so fucking slutty, making Jack curse.

He flips Rhys over, his dick slipping out with a wet noise, the evidence of his spunk leaking out of him. The kid’s fucked _loose_. He pushes fingers back in, plugging him up, and sensitive little Rhys tries tugging his wrist to get his fingers out.

“Showing your true colours, ain’tcha? Such a little slut for this dick…” Jack growls low and filthy.

“A-AH!—Don’t be so rough, Jack!”

“You _love_ it.” He growls out. “Don’t lie to me.”

The boy whimpers beneath him, sounding so gorgeous and hot. He doesn’t say _no_. That gets him hot again, and he needed to fuck the sexy little kid once more, way too horny and pent up for him to care, needing his perverted fill of the kid for the whole night after.

 

* * *

 

                    

Several long months pass by like this, spending heated moments together in secret while Rhys grows into a fine young vault hunter who’s learnt a lot and has grown even more capable than he was when he first started.

He’d started gaining more confidence, gotten more drive to do better instead of remaining stagnant at one level and progressing very well under Jack’s tutelage.

Everyone could see just how much Rhys had progressed and how much Jack was flourishing from expending his energies teaching the young man, noticing some changes in his behaviour. Maybe they couldn’t describe it but it was a positive change, and that was better than how Jack had been before—especially since they knew how Jack had lost his family, and how it had affected him.

They were in one of the clubs in one of the city areas of Bloodshot Stronghold after a mission, and as usual, they’re just wasting time winding down after an entire afternoon being completely violent and getting paid big money for it before they would head back to Sanctuary.

It was Rhys’ idea to head inside the club after getting cleaned up in their motel bathroom even when Jack wanted to wind down and maybe sneak in getting a blowjob from Rhys, but the kid’s got different plans.

He’s all but insisting that Jack would get them VIP access inside anyway, and he’s damn right about that. Handsome Jack was one of Pandora’s most well-known vault hunters, and he’s got a lot of crazy fans for all the movies he’d been in when he was younger.

After a few drinks to loosen themselves up, Rhys feels the alcohol rush through his system and it gets him determined to tease Jack and give him the show of his goddamn life.

Rhys traces a finger over Jack's forearm lightly and teasing then finishes off his drink, as if for liquid courage, and ends up standing, rolling up his shirt sleeves, exposing his strong and lean forearms.

"You and I can talk all day here, but I'm not really gonna waste anymore time...'coz I'm feeling this song right now. I'm gonna dance." Rhys whispers in Jack’s ear, his mouth nibbling the slightest over his earlobe naughtily, making the man shiver a little.

Rhys gives him a sultry smile and a little wink, and with a flourish of a sensual, practiced movement of his hips he sidles up into the crowd, the mass of dancing, writhing bodies on the dance floor. Already, there's people looking at him. There’s people eyeing him most definitely interestedly, like they knew he was a vault hunter, and no longer just anyone ordinary on Pandora.

Rhys knows he's eye-catching to the regular guy or girl around these parts, what with his fitted pants and clothes and expensive looking gear, and his pretty face. And yet...

It's not their attention he desires for. Rhys had his hair tousled and looking lovely, skin glistening in the dim, pulsing light making him look ethereal and beautiful. The holster of the pistol on his slim hip was still prominent, making him look sultry and more than subtly dangerous and pretty.

His eyes slid shut, in his element now.

He bites his bottom lip, moving his slender, taut body along purposefully, infuriatingly slow and sensual to the slow, thudding bass rhythm of the music.

His hands move over the sides of his body, his hard chest, stomach, hooking fingers into his belt, fitted pants showing every curve of his slim wiry body.

He opens his eyes again, not seeing Jack anywhere in his line of sight. The man seems to have disappeared, but then he reappears near him when he feels the man wrap an arm around his slender waist. He turns around to look at him with a slow purposeful sensual smile tugging on his lips, a thorough come-on, his gaze come hither and his hips slowly swaying to the music, grinding against Jack.

Meanwhile, Axton’s in a different corner of the club, noticing Jack. He’s about to head over to the man to talk when he notices who he’s looking at.

He’s _staring_ at Rhys.

The man’s looking at the boy he called his adopted son in a decidedly lascivious manner, like he’s about to eat him up. It looks like how aHis eyes were raking up and down the kid’s body with sexual interest. Axton can see _why_ , fuck, he’s harbouring feelings for Rhys himself, but he definitely can’t see _why_ it’s coming from Jack.

It’s like watching a bad omen. Axton’s got an odd sinking feeling in his gut, knowing he’s seeing something he’s not supposed to see, but thankful for having seen it so he could do _something_ about it. He watches as Jack gets up and heads in the direction of Rhys, grabbing the kid and pulling him out of the club…

There’s just too many people in the club he has to push against to get out the nearest exit. Axton curses, needing to get out of the jam packed club and save Rhys before it’s too late.

His heart’s thudding, barely hearing anything above the sound of his own worry and fear and anger. He’d shared a moral code with Jack, dammit. That they wouldn’t fuck anyone while they were too drunk, or take advantage of anyone who couldn’t fight back. They’d adhered to their strict code of _consent_ until now, but Jack was just blatantly breaking it?! With Rhys?

_Rhys,_ the kid who’d been looking up to Jack like he was his own father?!

Once he’d finally reached outside, Axton’s breath is a little heavy as he tries finding Rhys, thinking of all the bad things that could happen to the boy—

When all his worst fears come true.

In the distance, Rhys was already pushed to the wall in the alleyway, a big hand wrapped around the boy’s throat. Jack looks dangerous and cruel with each snap of his hips, thrusting into the kid heavily, growling filthy things like “You like that, you little slut?” and “Fuckin’ teasing me all night long, yeah? You deserve this, don’t you?”

Rhys is _crying_.

He’s trying to tell Jack “no” but the man keeps going and going, until he stills and growls his sick, perverted pleasure, a clear indication he’s finishing inside the kid…

When he pulls out, Rhys lets out a sobby cry when Jack shoves big fingers inside him, calling him a “ _loose, wet little whore_ ”…

Axton sees red.

He runs towards Jack and with a snarl the blond man tackles him to the ground and rains heavy blows onto Jack’s stunned face, having been caught pants down fucking his boy when he finally collects himself and grabs Axton’s wrist, and dealt him a heavy punch from below his attacker’s chin, making his head snap up from the brutal force.

That gets Jack enough time to pull away from under him and pull his pants back up, snarling, “What the fuck, Axton?!”

“You fucking piece of shit!” Axton yells at Jack, angry. “How the fuck could you do that to Rhys?! He’s supposed to be your fucking foster son for fuck’s sakes! How sick could you be?!”

“That’s not how it looks like, you goddamn son of a bitch!”

“How fucking immoral can you be, Jack?!”

“What the fuck do you even know?!”

“I know enough! You don’t even have to explain, you sick fuck. He’s Angel’s age!”

Jack growls at the mention of Angel, seeing red too. He goes in for another punch, his neck muscles were corded from sheer anger and adrenaline coursing through his veins. He beats Axton.

Meanwhile, Rhys was watching on with abject horror after he’d pulled himself up together, the night seeming to have suddenly come to a halt and turned sour.

All because of him!

“Axton! Jack! No, stop!”

“Don’t you fucking talk about her!” Jack snarls.

“He’s your fucking Angel replacement, isn’t he? Wasn’t he supposed to be that?! You sick fuck!”

“What the hell would you know, huh?! You _sack of shit,_ jumping to conclusions! What the fuck do you know?”

Rhys gets in between them, trying to separate the two fighting men when he gets struck on the face by Jack and he yelps, looking at Jack like he’s hurt.

Jack stops, looking on with a bit of fear at his own actions. The boy clutches onto his jaw, looking mad and tearing up a bit from pain, when he snaps out, “JACK! Just go already, just go somewhere and let me explain to Axton what’s been going on between us so far!”

Jack finally, begrudgingly does as Rhys says, though he just aims a death glare at Axton, spitting blood on the ground and mutters a curse under his breath before he stalks off.

The both of them watch until Jack’s no longer in sight, and Rhys helps Axton up, the blond man asking concernedly, “Rhys, are you okay? Did he _rape_ you? God, I swear, I saw him looking at you… just, it was sick. How a father shouldn’t be. I wouldn’t have thought he’s such scum to do that to you--”

“Stop calling him that! He’s not my father. He’ll never be,” Rhys says finally, cutting him off and frowning, giving Axton a piece of his own mind.

“Then what the fuck’s been going on, Rhys?”

“Jack and I… we’re sorta—seeing each other,” the boy finally admits, looking guilty.

“You normally let him fuck you like that, huh?” Axton asks, weirded out. “He looked like he was forcing himself on you. Are you sure?”

“Yes, I’m sure. And yes, um… we normally go a bit rough, so… it might’ve looked like something else. I swear, it wasn’t him taking advantage of me.” Rhys says, swallowing a little, looking so, _so_ guilty and embarrassed.

“Your idea of going rough is him choking you, huh?” he asks Rhys bitterly.

“I…I guess?” Rhys looks unsure of himself, clearing his throat a little.

“What’s he to you, huh?”

“He’s my… he’s Jack.”

Axton looks at Rhys with a hint of pity in his eyes, “Does he not admit what he is to you? Tough luck, getting a man that pig-headed enough to not be truthful about his relationship with a kid.”

“Shut up! Don’t call me a kid, it sounds like you’re looking down on me when you say it.” Rhys exclaims, affronted.

“I’m trying to protect you from him!”

“Why, Axton? For what? You’re making him out to be some predator-”

“You don’t realise that he is!” Axton says disapprovingly. “I’ve known him a long time, and he’s never acted like this before. He’s keeping you like some kind of a dirty little secret, which maybe you _are,_ and he’s embarrassed to admit anything when it comes to you. You want to stay with a man like that? He can’t even admit a truth to himself, or be proud and open with you.”

“Yeah!” Rhys says defiantly. “He’s taught me a lot. And he doesn’t need to say anything to me, I’m not looking for it.”

“He’ll dump you and hurt you. He’s capable of it, Rhys! Did you forget that one time he basically told you to become a whore and stop trying to be a vault hunter?!”

Rhys goes quiet at that, remembering that moment.

“You’re not gonna change my mind, Axton. I like him and I’m okay with what we have.” Rhys defends.

“Goddammit Rhys!” Axton says exasperatedly. “He’ll dump you after he finds a woman he wants to be with. He’s not like me. He’s—”

“Not like you? What the hell are you talking about?”

“In case you haven’t noticed, Rhys—you and I, we’ll work out better than you and him!”

“What are you saying?” Rhys folds his arms, looking at him unimpressed.

“Goddammit, Rhys… I’m saying I like you. I actually like you, and I’ll treat you better than Jack would.” Axton confesses.

Rhys grows quiet, staring at Axton with a surprised expression.

“I do like you too, Axton,” Rhys chooses his words carefully, “But not in that way, and I like Jack more. He understands me… he knows what I need. And I don’t need flashy declarations we’re together, because that’s no one’s business besides ours. And I know how people would judge us, they’d call me a gold digger or a whore or something, but I don’t care about that.”

He breathes before continuing, “I’m sorry, Axton, that I kept this from you… that we’ve been keeping this a secret, but your reaction tonight’s just the exact reason why we’ve been quiet about it.”

“I’m gonna go, Ax.” He says apologetically, squeezing Axton’s shoulder gently then leaves to return back to Jack.

Once he’s back in the motel room, he sees that Jack’s stripped down and laying on the bed, staring up at the ceiling with a cigarette hanging off his lips.

“Hey.”

“Hey.” Rhys comes over, plucking the cigarette off his lips and putting it out on the ashtray, leaning in to press a chaste kiss on the man’s mouth.

He’s pulled onto Jack’s lap, and Rhys giggles a little breathily, then pauses to touch over the bruise marks on Jack’s handsome face gingerly. “That hurt?” Rhys asks.

“Nothin I can’t handle,” Jack responds, running his hands over Rhys’ sides, feeling up the sides of his slender body, then cups over Rhys’ chin, saying, “I’m sorry I hurt you.”

“It’s fine, it’ll go away,” Rhys concedes, nuzzling into Jack’s broad, furry sculpted chest as he lays against him in a straddle.

“So you explained it to him?”

“I did, yeah.” After a moment’s silence, Rhys brings up, “He told me I couldn’t trust you, and he reminded me of that one time you told me to be a drag queen instead of being a vault hunter.”

Jack’s quick to get on the defensive, saying, “Look, Rhys, I’m sorry about that too. Obviously I wasn’t—I’m still not the best person to get along with, but I take back what I said before, yeah?”

“I know,” Rhys chuckles, tracing circles over Jack’s skin, peering up at him. “It’s okay.”

Some moments pass, before Rhys says, “He also confessed he wanted me too.”

“What did you say?” Jack’s grip tightens a little around Rhys without knowing it.

“That I wasn’t interested. I’m only interested in you.”

“Good. If you’d said otherwise, I’d kill ya.”

“You’d wring your hands around my neck, huh?” Rhys asks him cheekily.

“Shut up, kid.”

They kiss, and kiss, some kind of unspoken thing that’s between them as always lingering in the air of a certain understanding.

“I can’t go back to Sanctuary like this,” Jack finally admits. “With the big fuckin’ mouth on Axton? It’ll spread like wildfire. My reputation will be goddamn tarnished. What would anyone think of me?”

“Then what are we gonna do?” Rhys asks.

“We’ll leave. We’ll find our own way. You and me, sweetheart? We could do anything we want. We’ve got different planets to explore, so many more places to conquer…”

Rhys sounds excited at the suggestion, sitting up, still straddling Jack. “We could go to different planets?”

“Yeah, why not? We could start a company somewhere, make good, proper guns. We’d overtake Dahl and Hyperion, you and me, baby. With our tech expertise, and our vault hunter street smarts, sugar plum? We’d do extraordinary things.” Jack sounds inspirational, grinning up at the boy.

“We’ll be CEO of our company together, yeah?” Rhys asks him dreamily.

“Hell yeah we would, cupcake. How does that sound?”

“It sounds like _heaven_ , Jack.”

 

-End-

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> That was fun writing this! I hope you guys enjoy, and comment/kudos/bookmark my fic! Thanks for reading!


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